About “PRBLMS”

He knows he played a part in her being the way she is now, but can’t help the fact that he might want love one week, and then want to be alone the next week. He’s asking himself “Why you do that?” because he’s aware of his actions, but honestly doesn’t know why he is the way he is.

What has 6LACK said about the visuals for "PRBLMS"?

The video for “PRBLMS” premiered October 14th, 2016. In an email sent to Complex, 6LACK said that the visuals mirror his current life.

I wanted to let people know exactly where I am. It’s a huge transitional period for me right now. I’m free, and am getting ready to release the first body of work that best reflects who I am and where I am in my life. The ‘PRBLMS’ video represents a fresh start in every realm.

What was the inspiration for this song?

I remember it like it was yesterday. I used to pride myself on not dealing with nobody crazy, as far as relationships go. So I would always be like, “I’ve never dealt with nobody crazy.” Because I just don’t attract that. For once, I got into a situation where everybody was like, “Don’t do it.” And I was like, “Nah, I got this. This is what I do.” And I did it, and it just spun out of control. “PRBLMS” was born. Everything in the song was verbatim what I was dealing with at the time. These were direct lines, literally from text messages to actual arguments and conversations.

How did the beat for this song come about?

The “PRBLMS” beat was given to me by my in-house producer, who is not Nova. This dude Sengod. And Sengod is kind of like me, just searching on the Internet. He finds a dope beat and just shoots me ideas. He shot me the beat first, and obviously, I went to Nova with the song, like “I know I don’t know you, but we might have something here.”

How long did it take 6lack to write this song?

Maybe 35 minutes—35 or 40 minutes. There was literally a stream. When you listen to the song, it’s not super rappy, and it’s not super singy. It’s more so like me talking in my voice. So it was just like 40 minutes of just line for line just saying exactly what I was feeling at the time. And just making it rhyme, obviously.

Why did 6lack take the vowels out of the song title?

It just looked cooler. The song was called “PRBLMS.” I don’t even think when I first saved the bounce, that I typed out “Problems.” It was always “PRBLMS” from the beginning. I looked at the word for a second. I was like, “It’s kind of ugly.” Then I dropped the vowels, and that was it.